The Life Scientific: Seth Berkley
Discovery
BBC
4.3 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr Seth Berkley is an epidemiologist and global health leader whose career has been shaped by one central problem: vaccines save lives, but only if people can actually get them. His 40-year career has spanned the global, from helping to build Uganda’s first HIV surveillance system and founding the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative; to leading Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance for more than a decade – overseeing the immunisation of hundreds of millions of children worldwide. And when COVID-19 struck, Seth co-founded COVAX, the global initiative designed to stop wealthy nations monopolising vaccines. In conversation with Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Seth discusses the highs and lows of his globe-trotting career - from saving millions of young lives through vaccine distribution, to setting his own shattered leg after a climbing accident in Namibia - and addresses the huge challenge of tackling vaccine scepticism.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:07.2 | Things just swirling around my head. |
| 0:09.6 | Am I really the product of this? |
| 0:12.1 | Astonishing secrets uncovered by at-home DNA tests. |
| 0:17.0 | Little did I know what more was to come. |
| 0:19.5 | I'm Jenny Clemen, and in the new series of The Gift, |
| 0:23.6 | we'll hear more stories emerging out of the ever-expanding global DNA database. |
| 0:28.8 | They did know that I was different. |
| 0:31.7 | You had kids together. |
| 0:33.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:33.5 | Then you met. |
| 0:34.3 | Then we met. |
| 0:35.2 | The Gift. |
| 0:36.1 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:39.3 | Hello, from building a makeshift chemistry lab in his wardrobe as a child and years later |
| 0:45.3 | setting his own shattered leg after a climbing accident to, more recently, raising billions of |
| 0:50.8 | dollars to help vaccinate the world during the COVID pandemic. Dr. Seth Barclay |
| 0:55.4 | has never been one to do things by halves. Seth's career as an epidemiologist has revolved around |
| 1:00.7 | one big problem, that vaccines save lives, but only if people can get them. His four decades in |
| 1:07.5 | the field have taken him around the world, from helping to build Uganda's first HIV surveillance system and founding the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to |
| 1:16.5 | leading Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance for more than a decade, overseeing the immunisation of |
| 1:21.7 | hundreds of millions of children worldwide. And when COVID-19 struck, Seth founded Kovacs, the global initiative designed to |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 24 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

